EPSON AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Epson & the Environment

Epson and the environment

We all have a role to play in building a better future. For Epson, being a sustainable company means being mindful of every aspect of our organisation – from the smallest lightbulb to the largest factory. It fuels our innovation, drives our growth, motivates our workforce and, ultimately, to contribute to society. It is also an essential part of how we work with our partners across the supply chain.

Environmental Vision 2050

Epson’s vision is to become an indispensable company that uses its efficient, compact and precision technologies to achieve sustainability in a circular economy

Epson has established and is working towards its Environmental Vision 2050, a framework put in place to address climate change. We aim to do this, not only by focussing on climate protection and biodiversity, but by also looking at sustainability and the circular economy as a more comprehensive approach.

"We are dedicated to offering businesses across Europe a clear ‘green choice’ in the products they use,” said Kazuyoshi Yamamoto, president of Epson Europe. “I hear from customers everyday about their need for technology that is better for the environment, cost effective and efficient. This is what Epson has delivered and the achievement, alongside the cumulative gains, lies with our business customers who have made the choice to switch from laser to inkjet technology."

In 2008, Epson established Environmental Vision 2050, a statement of our environmental goals out to the year 2050. The world has since changed. Global efforts to achieve social sustainability are accelerating, with the United Nations adopting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement charting a course toward decarbonization. In light of these changes, Epson revised the vision in 2018 and specified three actions that the company should take.

In March 2021, Epson further revised the vision, setting specific goals that reflect Epson's strong commitment to addressing major societal issues such as decarbonization and resource recycling.

Epson has established targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions until 2030 in line with the 1.5°C scenario of the Paris Agreement and the criteria of the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).

Key conditions

2025 Goals

As part of our 2025 Corporate Vision we want to contribute to the development of a sustainable society by leveraging efficient, compact and precision technologies to reduce the environmental impact of products and services across their life cycles.

Large corporations, like Epson, have the power to effect change quickest given their reach throughout global supply chains and impact through product development to make the circular economy model a reality. Even in today’s digitally powered world, the printer is considered an essential business tool by 77% of employees in the EU52. Research also confirms better comprehension, concentration and lower stress levels result from reading printed text as opposed to digital screens3. For example, our WorkForce Pro inkjet printers now use up to 96% less energy, produce up to 94% less waste and emit up to 92% less CO₂ than comparable laser printers4.

In addition to improving the design and performance of existing products, applying the principles of the circular economy has required Epson to think about its business in a new light. We have commenced our Circular Economy Project to ensure this thinking model is reflected throughout our company and the community we work in, such as recycling printer cartridges at Epson Telford and third party certification throughout our processes.

Some of our achievements so far

Goals

The importance of our goals for Europe

Epson’s European sustainability report, entitled The Green Choice, lays out its commitment to corporate social responsibility (CSR) across the business. It highlights the strides made in energy, water and CO savings across Epson’s European footprintorganisation; its commitment throughout its supply chain and manufacturing; and, its dedication to creating environmentally conscious products that allow businesses to reduce their environmental footprints.

Environmental History

Epson's history of environmental projects and policies started with an enforced pollution-control programme that successfully ran over four decades. By the end of the 90s, Epson had published its achievements in an annual environmental report. Since the beginning of the new millennium, Epson has widened its scope and is active in reforestation-projects, energy control and zero emission programmes alike. Read more about some of Epson's environmental milestones below.

Harmony, collaboration, and environmental commitment

Epson was founded in 1942 in Suwa, a city located in the rich natural environment of Nagano Prefecture. Harmonious co-existence with the communities in which we operate has long been a cornerstone of the company, and even as our operations have expanded globally, our culture of respect for the environment has never wavered. We demonstrated this in 1988, when Epson became the world’s first company to announce that it would eliminate ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) from its operations.

1942 - 2010+

Here at Epson, our technology is driven by our commitment to society and the environment. We focus on the essential and eliminate the unnecessary to create greater value. With this philosophy at our core, Epson has always strived to meet sustainability needs and will continue to do so.

Life-cycle Thinking

From the first sketch until its entry into a recycling process: All our products are developed with an ecologically sustainable life cycle in mind. This is the key-strategy for our eco-considerate products and it carries our efforts to decrease our environmental impact beyond our gates, into your homes and office.

We set concrete targets for environmental specifications that should be achieved at the product planning stage. And, we have introduced a design-for-environment (DfE) process in which we evaluate how well we did in and after the design stage.

Environmental Management

We all have a role to play in building a better future. For Epson, being a sustainable company means being mindful of every aspect of our organisation – from the smallest lightbulb to the largest factory.

Business units within the Epson Group establish their own environmental action plans, and carry out the activities using an Environmental Management System. We conduct internal evaluations to check performance against the plans and take corrective action if necessary.

We aim to:

New Perspective

Our commitment does not end at the gates of Epson’s production facilities. Our endeavours already influence the daily work routines of our customers and business partners.

Image "Earth glinting in the sun" © ESA/NASA

Products

Epson is committed to developing environmentally conscious products, which means that sustainability is considered from conception to completion. Along with an eco-friendly design, this also means the elimination of hazardous substances in our complete product range.

Potential Epson customer energy cost CO₂ savings⁶

By switching to Epson business inkjet our customers could have saved up to €65.7m Euros on their energy bill and up to 124K tonnes of CO₂ over two years.

Environmentally-conscious products

Production

The ecological optimisation of our production processes is one of the core areas where our policies take action. We mainly focus on global warming prevention, the elimination of emissions and the control of chemical substances. Furthermore, we dedicate our efforts to issues like an enhanced transportation system, well-engineered water and substance management and environmental risk management.

The environment - at the heart of our processes

Epson Telford is at the forefront of Seiko Epson’s environmental activities and was the first site within the Group to receive ISO14001.

Accredited with ISO 14001 since 1996, it has provided a framework to manage our activities, and carry out regular audits to make sure that improvements are not only made, but maintained. A culture of continuous improvement pervades everything we do.

Product Recycling

The responsible and effective processing of our products after they have ended their service for our customers and business partners is important.

So important in fact, that we already include a recycling strategy as early as the planning stages for our products. All of our finished products comply with the WEEE directive from 2005. For our expendable items, such as cartridges, we have established a collection system that assures a safe return of empty cartridges to Epson.

“To conserve valuable environmental resources and reduce waste we aim to collect and recycle as many products and supplies as possible.”

Eco Community

We see it as our duty to provide support and carry our strategies into the global community. Together with our customers and business partners, we develop and participate in programmes that enforce ecological thinking and responsibility in various fields like Eco Corporate Citizenship, Eco Technology, Eco Communication or Eco Education.

Environmental Information

To fulfil our corporate social responsibility (CSR), we aim to address environmental issues by providing value that exceeds the expectations of our customers and society.

EU declaration of conformity

Epson’s declaration of conformity documents are available online, and can be searched by product type and product.

¹ Non-renewable resources such as oil and metals

² 3,639 IT decision makers and employees across France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the UK, FTI Consulting, commissioned by Epson 2015.

³ Wastlund, Reinikka, Norlander & Archer, 2005: http://www.radford.act.edu.au/storage/reading-on-screens-v-paper.pdf.

⁴ To understand these figures and how they can benefit your business please visit www.epson.eu/maketheswitch.

⁵ A small amount of water is used to maintain a certain level of humidity inside the system.

⁶ Calculated on Epson business inkjets sold over the last two calendar years (CY16, CY17) in EU6 markets, over an average usage for the products of four years.
Calculation methodology is proven by TÜV Rheinland.

⁷ Visit www.epson.eu/maketheswitch for more information.

⁸ Market share based on revenue of industrial SCARA robots, 2011-2016. (Source: Fuji Keizai "2012 - 2017 Worldwide Robot Market and Future Outlook")

⁹ Compared with an Epson LS3 SCARA robot

¹⁰ Comparison when connected to Ethernet (230 V)

¹¹ This product is sold by the Seiko Watch Corporation.

¹² Compared to the watch head (case) of the models in the 7X series, which were released in 2012.